25 replies to this topic

[mag gizmo]

Hi guys,

 

I have a lot of 1/24 slot cars and I really wanted to run these things in my house. Without buying a big commercial slot car track (my wife will kill me for sure) what is my other option? I totally understand that sponge tires won't work on plastic track, however somebody also told me that Carrera tracks won't work because slot is too shallow and track is not wide enough.

 

The vintage Sears Marx track is the only choice?

[Tim Wilkins]

A good place to start is by looking at the Club & Home Slot Racing forum to get ideas.

 

Sometimes it's a matter of luck if a good used compact track comes up for sale in your area such as THIS ONE that sold in Ohio.  

[mag gizmo]

Dear Tim, thank you very much for your reply. I think I will check out "club & home slot racing' thread. May be I can find something that fit my needs.

I have bunch of vintage slot cars and I really don't want race them in Buena Park Race way. I run my COX Cheetah once and just got so scared so I quit and switched with my Parma slot car instead.

[Cheater]

Tak,

 

The impression I get is that 1/24 racers who want something at home are very rarely happy with any brand of sectional plastic track.

 

But that's not based on any direct and personal experience. Hopefully others with experience will post their thoughts on the subject.

[garyvmachines]

Hi Tak

Support your local raceway !!!  They have to have a time when the track's are not full.......

These car's are made to RUN ...... Blow the dust off.......I know $$$$$$ .....

But you can knock off parts  on a home track too ( I had many broken axels at my home track )

If you are going to have a home track I would go for the routed wood track. More work up front, more fun in the long run.

 

GAV

[MattD]

The old Marx is pretty good stuff, I used it for many years and with the built in borders and gently banked turns you can run the old 1/24 stuff at speed and pretty safe. The connections are good, but it does wear the brushes a bit. The Carrera is the best you can get. It has a deep slot, 4 inch lane spacing every requirement for 1/24 cars. Silicone is best, urethane works. You can buy slip on urethanes to fit those old Cox cars. Sponge not so good, but you can glue on plastic if you don't mind dirtying up your track.

We have a small group that race on 2 Carrera home setups. We enjoy it, The track type is secondary to competitive equal cars. We run on a 6 lane and a 4 lane. I have built routed home tracks in the past, but I like the option of changing things every now and then.

We have a local cabinet shop with a cnc router and both of the track owners have thought about building a new routed track, but so far we haven't done it. Routing a 2 lane track is really pretty easy, especially if you want a simple flat track. With barely competent work working skills you could do this. A router makes nice curves but a scroll/jig saw will do the same thing. Copper tape works fine also.

Plenty of internet threads about building tracks.

Also of interest would be Monogram or Revell 1/32 track, it is 3 1/2 inch spacing and has a deep slot. Borders can be home made and you can run 1/24, although it is a little close. Buy a cheap Carrera set and it you are satisfied, watch ebay for a deal on some used track to make it bigger.

[Tim Neja]

I'd contact Bob Scott --he's a track builder with very reasonable rates!! His company is Cruisin Slot Cars--- easy to find on here and other slot related web sites.  One of his tracks is in my avatar!! It is now in Las Vegas but was great for running 1/24 cars on it.  One of our BPR Retro cars held the track record!! Good guy--he's in Calif for a while right now doing fairs and other events with a mobile slot car track!!  Check him out!!

[mag gizmo]

Gregory, Gary, Matt thank you very much for info. I've been making custom guitars for over 35years and I do have CNC mill at my office. I was thinking to mill this slot car track for a while now but I needed to take them down whenever my wife orders me to clean up my toys. I just can't have fixed set up until my son finish master in his college so I can take over his room for this. I guess my best option for now is Carrera just like Matt said.

[Phil Nyland]

My patio track, one of four in the O.C. area.  If you have room.

 

[Phil Nyland]

A simple abs sprinkler pipe frame fits into corner sockets. A tarp covers that. Up above on the patio cover, angled corrugated plastic keeps water off.  Dennis Samson proved this concept with his patio track.  No warpage and no problems.

[garyvmachines]

YOU SO CAL Guy's !!!! And your nice weather

Wish I could come out and race with you guy's...............

GAV

[don.siegel]

The Carrera track is fine for 1/24 cars, except for the high-speed commercial variety. 

 

The slots are deep enough, and it's wide enough (plus I think there are borders available). I've run a number of vintage races on Carrera track here in Europe, and while not as nice as a routed track, it's fine for most purposes. If you can't do a permanent layout, consider the Carrera option. It's also about the flattest and most consistent of the plastic tracks. 

 

Urethane tires hook up very well on Carrera track too, and they last forever. 

 

Don 

 

PS: if you've got the funds, there are also some sectional wooden tracks available, like one from Germany, but the name escapes me for now. Found it: 

http://www.slotfire....teme/index.html

[MattD]

You will be fine with Carrera, but the power supply will probably not be satisfactory. Most of the old stuff draws a lot of amps and the supplied power doesn't have enough. For 20 years I powered with an old 1950's Sears battery charger. In the 90's I picked up a newer charger, more electronic and used it until 2 yeas ago when I bought a nice power supply from ebay. A 12 volt charger with a minimum 10 amps is pretty cheap.

I have read for years about non-filtered ac current that leaks thru an old charger and how it damages motors. I'm still waiting for that to happen.

Don, I would take exception to the ability to run commercial cars on Carrera track. If you want to spend the money, you can buy track pieces that will let you run most anything. The #4 curves are about a 7 foot curve and available banked with aprons to expand the "gutter" another 2 inches. You can pretty much duplicate a King with plastic if you have the budget for it. The cost would be so high, that you would be better off routing a track.

It is possible, just not very cost efficient.

[racie35]

Here in the USA..there's one call Full trigger now,making routed tracks and sections.

[MattD]

I tried to buy the unfinished Full Trigger track that went thru ebay a few weeks ago. I wasn't sure I would have used it as it was, but I bid $300 something just in case it stayed cheap. It went higher than that, but was still a good deal. I hoped one of the guys on the forums had won it. It was what they call the "Lazy Eight". It could have easily had a couple of the tighter curves taken out and made it easier to drive, but maintaining the same figure 8 design. It also could have easily been cut up a little and made a into a tri-oval with slight banks. This is a nice option if you have the bucks.

If you buy Carrera, don't be fooled into thinking the #1 banked turns are what you want. We find all the Carrera banks are banked too much. We use flat track and just force a little banking into it.

I use #1 and #2 curves and to make a tri-oval requires cutting half pieces of the curves at each end. I have #3 curves also, but really don't want to widen the table top another 20 inches or so. We run 2,3, and 4 curves on another local oval track and it about 7 foot wide.

[mag gizmo]

Hi guys, I run CNC mill yesterday and come up with 11"R half circle and some straight. My classic Gamma ray  run very well on it. I think I'm going to use real 1/4" braid instead of copper tape I used to test. May be somehow I can bolt these sections together, making it like Carrera tracks so I can disassemble them as I needed.

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[mag gizmo]

These are my control boxes I made out of Bubinga and plywood.

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[don.siegel]

Those look real nice Gizmo, I think you have a plan...

 

Matt, I was thinking more like Parma cars with sponge tires, might be a little tight on the Carrera and the spongies wouldn't be happy, at least from the few experiences I've seen. 

 

Don

[mag gizmo]

Don, I think I still going to buy some Carrera tracks though. These plywood tracks will take a long time to build and I can't wait to run my Stingers (I have 2 classic stingers), Gamma Ray, All the Cox stuff, etc...........

I might change to 2 lanes next time, I'm only testing my plan (detachable wooden slot car tracks)  actually work or not.

[dc-65x]

My advise is to convince your wife that the best use for a living room/dining room is a custom made Gary Gerding slot car track.    Hey, it worked for me.

 

 

[mag gizmo]

Rick, I will get shot for sure.

[MattD]

Rick, quit showing that track! I followed the whole build thread and it makes me so envious!!!! I was just about over it and now you show it again.

I say forget the Carrera, with your woodworking skills and router access, go ahead and make a routed track in 3-5 sections. Lots of ways to connect sections fairly quick and accurate. Storage would indicate a narrow track might be easier for you to store.

Easiest plan would be a two lane oval. Route the curves about 170 degrees or so and then bend to get a slight bank. Fasten the curves to a flat piece to keep the bank. Rout a couple straight sections to connect the two curves. Either 2 long straights or 2-4 sections 5 feet long. Hopefully you could store this size.Buy a power supply and a couple controllers and you are good to go. Don't be afraid to use copper tape it actually works great and lasts a long time. This would be cheaper than buying a new Carrera set.

[Ramcatlarry]

One of our club member set up an old Revell hard plastic track (some/not all available still as REH Dist Riggen) and it was not bad. The next year it was replaced with the Carrera track and all was better.  The other (flexible rubber) homeset tracks get the confirmation of the narrow slot and excessivly tight radius corners...most of these with the inner corner cannot use the standard 1" long flag without cutting it down to 3/4" and many times trimming or adjusting how deep it sits in the slot.  The 1958 Southport Slot industry standard has been ignored for much TOO LONG.  Carrera is the only current plastic track that DOES have a proper slot that the rest of the commercial slot industry uses..  Wish I could say the same for all of the rest of the products.

[mag gizmo]

Matt, I just bought almost 40ft of mint condition Carrera tracks on eBay for $175.00. Now I can run my vintage slot cars very slowly............so that I don't damage my COX cheetah.

But I will keep making my little detachable wooden slot car tracks too. May be I should to change to 2 lanes next time.

[MattD]

Good deal, I changed back to Carrera two years ago and I bought several lots of track on Ebay. Probably guys that either quit slots or went to routed tracks. Keep watching for more straights and either 2 or 3 curves and you'll start getting enough track to run a little more speed and not have to negotiate those #1 curves. You might find issues with power and amps, but that is overcome pretty easy. You have allready shown good skill with wiring and woodworking, so you can easily make what you need for control and power.

With your abilities, I think I would plan to build a two lane routed/sectional track in the future. Some fairly simple design with long straights and gently banked turns. With your climate, a portable track like this can easily be setup outside, in the garage, anywhere, not necessarily in the house. If you rout, you can probably paint with a texture paint/black board paint or other rough finish which might suit your old cars with sponge/hard tires. They won't be real great on Carrera unless you use some glue.